Schools out Part three

Lettuce

Butterhead lettuce

The butterhead lettuce appear to be doing well, having been transplanted out. The two that in the terracotta pot, do however appear to be doing much better than there family members in the grow bag. Two were sown in the clay pot as I had read somewhere that lettuce were shallow rooted. The pot seemed idea. Transplanting into the grow bag, was better than just leaving the earth bare and not having anything. The leaves of the terracotta lettuce are lolling around drunk, quite long really. What I am concerned about is, whether or not these things will head up and form proper lettuce. I did sneakily, pinch a small leaf. There was a pleasant surprise, one can tell the difference between a shop bought leaf and a home cooked one. Tasted really quite nice.

Cabbage

Greyhound cabbage on the left. Spring hero on the right

I have learned to my cost, that no matter how hard you try, something will get to the cabbages well before you do. To be honest, and to my own fault, I had ignored the warnings. About all the lovely mini beasts that were wont to eat the cabbages. And woe is me, when the blighters have chomped through the cabbage as though it was a three course dinner. The Greyhound cabbages have been chomped to ribbons. Whole leaves have disappeared, the spine stripped bear. I have put down slug pellets, and today; covered with a cheapy warming jacket that is a like a mesh but cheaper. Tis probably most definitely too late. But with only six or seven, I feel altogether precious about them. The spring hero cabbage has to date ::touches wood:: been all right. No sooner is that typed, am I likely to see holes. That said, this has also been covered. I don’t think that for one moment, this will cure the problems. Slugs and snails have their place within the eco-system. They exist for a reason.

I have seen some of those cabbage white butterflies floating around. Even the odd lady bird. Perhaps the only lady bird, as there does not seem to be many around at all. As the autumn draws in, they are likely to disappear anyway. There were also at one point, lots of hover flies. Not many bumblies mind.

Gladys the BNS

Three flowers opened up

Our resident triffid has blossomed yet again. Five babies were identified, and with the absence of male flowers on the BNS. Bruno the Ghost rider pumpkin stepped in to help his third cousin twice removed. Three babies were pollinated having opened first, with the two others following the next day. At the moment, there are five babies still. Though nothing seems to be happening. With the autumn drawing, I daresay it really is monte carlo and bust now. There is probably not enough time to for the fruits to ripen, since these are meant to crop all the way through to November. Gladys has been somewhat of a labour of love.A neurotic labour of love, but a wonderful learning experience. So I am not too sure, if I will try again next year. Especially as I have heard many sad stories about the failure of BNS’s.

Bruno the ghostrider pumpkin

If Gladys the BNS is a curious and fickle creature, her relative is altogether a bit odd and strange. Making him an equally interesting project. Bruno started off with lots and lots of babies. I couldn’t count them, they kept on appearing. He finally settled on three. However, he aborted two. Leaving me with one that kept on growing. At the moment, it is about the same size as football. If Ma is to be believed, the pumpkin is on the turn. There are patches of yellow like tinge. There is however, eight weeks left. So it remains to be seen as to whether or not this particular pumpkin will make it to the final whistle. That said, I have located seeds to try again next year.

bruno pumpkin

babies that didn’t make it

On the right, are babies that didn’t quite make it this year. Sat next to a tendergreen pod.

Radish experiment

This was meant to be a quick and easy thing to do. Just to pass the time, and test out some freebies. Was really quite disappointing. Pencil thin radishes, with the occasional nice one. I do however, have lots of different radish seeds that have been collected. Not to mention some mooli type ones. So those will be the next experiment for next year.

Courgettes

I really don’t want to see any more till next year. All right, enough said!

Allotment update

Six months ago, I joined the waiting lists for the local hobbit land allotments. From what I have read, Brummieland has a massive number. These are, however, difficult to actually obtain. I was advised at the time, that there was a waiting list. That I would have to ring back in September. I was number five or six. It changed on when I rang! So as you can imagine, I’ve been doing a silly dance ever since. Whilst I like growing things in containers in pop’s garden. There is a whole of untapped potential. Not to mention an ever increasing seed box. As it stands, I could possibly get an allotment ‘in late october’. Grandad Mike was kind enough to ask the allotment secretary. The site is something like 80 metres away, and the allotment secretary lives right next door to it, and is across the road. September is what, a few days away. That is when I will ring! As I know it, the site has loads and loads of weeds. It has been neglected for a long period of time. So there will have to be some weed whacking before anything gets sown.